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There are two types of books here that you may find useful, general purpose racing books, and Corvair specific manuals. They cover many of the common questions and go into much greater detail than I have here, plus the Corvair books cover many things which are not specific to autocross or other racing but are often useful. For example, the CORSA Tech Guide has tables for ID numbers for cylinder heads, crankcases, etc. Oh, and for the record, the lack of the Chilton's guide on this list is not an oversight.
Chevrolet Chassis Shop Manual
This is the official guide to servicing Corvairs used by the dealer mechanics. They are still available new, just make sure you get a supplement for your specific year if you need one (for example a '67 needs both the '65 manual and '67 supplement). If you want to do any work on your Corvair, you need one of these. If you don't want to spring for a new one, they can often be found used at Corvair swap meets for very low prices.
Available from: Most Corvair vendors.
Performance Corvairs
by Seth Emerson.
This is the book we've waited for. Starting with How to Hotrod Corvair Engines, Seth has expanded on every topic from the book with a huge amount of information from the intervening years, and added entirely new sections. If you're building a performance Corvair of any kind, this book is a great place to start.
Available from: Performance Corvairs and Clark's Corvair parts.
How to Hotrod Corvair Engines
by Bill Fisher.
This was the best overall manual for Corvair Performance for many years. At this point you should really buy a copy of Performance Corvairs above, this book is best thought of as a conversation piece and is no longer in print.
Corvair Basics
Also known as the Beginner's Manual, this book was written by a group of volunteers from Virtual Vairs (myself included) and is oriented toward the enthusiast who is new to Corvairs. Although oriented toward the novice, there are a lot of accumulated tips and tricks, along with a good general discussion of how the systems are supposed to work. If you are just getting into Corvairs, this book is for you!
Available from: CORSA (you have to fill out the form and mail it in), as well as most Corvair vendors..
The Classic Corvair
Bob Helt's The Classic Corvair, is aimed at all Corvair owners but is more in depth than Corvair Basics, so he covers many of the more popular performance modifications and has more detail on the technical aspects of the car. Bob is well known in the Corvair community for his technical knowledge, and his book is a great illustration of his extensive background, he explains many of the crucial details that are helpful if you're going to modify your Corvair. 330 pages.
Available from: Bob Helt.
Corvair Secrets
Another Bob Helt Corvair title, things you probably don't know about the design and operation of the Corvair automobile. 250 pages.
Available from: Bob Helt.
How to Keep Your Corvair Alive
A very good book on Corvair repair by Richard Finch. He details a number of refinements to Corvairs, as well as outlining many of the repairs in a way that will be easier to the backyard mechanic who doesn't have a dealer service bay. He also covers the buildup of a Stinger engine back in the 70's. A new edition has just been released.
Available from: Clark's Corvair Parts or e-mail Richard direct.
Solo Is...
by Warren Leveque.
Warren has compiled his column along with other tech articles into a bound book - no more searching for a particular issue of the Corsa Communique!
Available from: Warren Leveque or Corvair Underground.
Available from: A reprint is available again from Clark's Corvair Parts.
CORSA Technical Guide
The collected technical articles published in The CORSA Communique, it has lots of good info and little improvements in many areas, including many performance mods (I refer to some here and there). There is also a supplement now available, both are quite useful.
Available from: CORSA (you have to fill out the form and mail it in), as well as most Corvair vendors..
How to Identify and Rebuild Corvair Rochester Carburetors
Another book from Bob Helt, only deals with the Rochester carbs that came on Corvairs, this will guide you through figuring out what you want, especially given that you may well have the wrong or mismatched pair on your engine.
Available from: Bob Helt.
How to Identify and Rebuild Corvair Carter YH Carburetors Used on Corvair Turbocharged Engines
Like the book above, but for the Carter YH carbs that came on turbo Corvairs, comprehensive turbo carburetor rebuild information.
Available from: Bob Helt.
The Corvair Decade
by Tony Fiore.
Tony was one of the founding Corsa members, and he wrote this history of the Corvair, published in 1980. It has information on how the Corvair came about, production chenges, and includes information on the major independently built Corvair derivatives.
Available from: CORSA.
Corvair...A History and Restoration Guide
by Bill Artzberger.
Oriented more towards building a show car, this book is useful since it covers the full sequence of buying, tearing down, and rebuilding a Corvair. An extensive section of tables and reference pages from the assembly manuals is included.
Available from: Clark's Corvair Parts.
Assembly manual
This is the manual used by the assembly line workers to build your Corvair. Clark's sells "reproduction" manuals, basically a photocopy of the original. You don't really need one unless you're going to do a major restoration, or are building a stock class concours car, though they are handy when figuring out how to install something that wasn't originally on your car or how to remove something - e.g. the heater.
Available from: Clark's Corvair Parts.
These books cover a lot of general theory and practice on building racing cars and performance modifications. If you want to buy these books on the net, just click on the title to buy them at Amazon.com. Since I am an Amazon Associate, you can help support the site because I get a commission from books you purchase *if* you go there directly from my site to buy them. If you are looking for other books, the search box at the bottom will take you to their site and I'll get a commission from those as well. Thanks!
All by Carroll Smith. This is the set of books on building race cars written by Carroll Smith. Most of the cars he writes about are pure race cars - Formula Ford, Formula 5000, Indy cars, Can-Am cars, etc., but the principles of preparation and tuning a race car are universal. These books are considered by many to be the standard for race car preparation.
How to Make Your Car Handle
by Fred Puhn. Covers general suspension theory for all the commonly used types of suspension, including both swing axle (early rear) and unequal length control arm (all front, late rear) systems. Has formulas for spring rates, explanation of component functions, and more.
Welder's Handbook
by Richard Finch and Tom Monroe. Covers MIG, TIG, gas and arc welding, including selecting equipment, what to use where, sample projects, and more. Yes, that's the same Richard Finch, so you'll see some Corvair examples in the book.
Metal Fabricators Handbook
by Ron Fournier. An excellent book on race car fabrication. Like Carroll Smith's books it's oriented toward pure race cars, but it's still very useful for techniques to build lots of cool parts for your Corvair based racer.
Secrets of Solo Racing: Expert Techniques for Autocrossing and Time Trials
by Henry A. Watts. One of the very few books out there specifically for autocrossing techniques, it covers all the points of successfully driving an autocross car.
Stan East suggested the following if you've set up your Corvair with Weber carbs:
And here are a couple more carb books you may find helpful:
Inner Speed Secrets: Mental Strategies to Maximize Your Racing Performance
by Ross Bentley and Ronn Langford. Finally, here's a book that may help you get the most out of the driver.
